Micro-blogging has become an effective means for collaborative discussion by allowing participants to share information at any given moment on a topic. In the Yammer® micro-blogging service, each participant is included in a client social network that is associated with the domain portion of their email address. For example, if Joe (joe@foo.com) and Bob (bob@foo.com) register with Yammer®, then both are automatically included in the foo.com client social network. Further, if Mike (mike@loo.com) and Greg (greg@loo.com) register with Yammer®, then both are automatically included in the loo.com client social network. Users may collaborate within the loo.com client social network via message “feeds.”
A message feed is a collection of threads and a thread is a collection of messages. A first message in the thread is a “thread starter message.” Users add to the thread by replying to the thread starter message or to other replies in the thread. Typically, a message feed is subscribed to by a user for his or her viewing. Examples of feeds include messages generated by a specific user, messages associated with a particular subject matter, messages associated with a keyword tag, or the like. For example, Mike may subscribe to a feed that includes messages associated with the micro-blogging activity of Joe, and/or may subscribe to a feed that includes all messages that are tagged with the keyword “software development.” Users may review and/or contribute to these message feeds and message threads and participate in the micro-blogging service.
Though message feeds and message threads provide some level of organization to the manner in which micro-blogging activity is delivered to users of the micro-blogging service, they are typically fixed and do not enable users to customize the inclusion and/or visibility of messages included therein. As a result, message feeds and/or message threads often include irrelevant messages that decrease overall user experience and wastefully consume processing and network resources.